“But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies. “But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.” Neh. 9:26-28 NIV
Today’s “Heaven” verses speak to the mercy of God and the sinfulness of man. God brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, the place of blessing, but the blessing didn’t change their willful hearts; So they entered into a cycle of sin that went something like this: The people sinned; God sent judgment; The people repented and cried for help; God heard from Heaven and sent a savior; As soon as they felt safe the people sinned again; The cycle repeated.
I think all of us can relate. If not current, this cycle has been common to all of us at some point in our lives. Some of us made excuses for the cycle blaming circumstances or other people for our cyclical sin;
“If only I had less stress I would…”
“If only I made more money I could stop…”
“If only my spouse weren’t such a jerk I could…”
Our verses today teach us that the problem is not with the world. It really has nothing to do with externals. Neither external stressors, money issues, nor your spouse have the power to make you sin. Sin comes from an inner proclivity towards disobedience and rebellion which we all carry. Until we cop to that and stop making excuses we can never be free. Until we stop trying to fix the outer world and address the real problem, which is with our hearts, we will keep going around the same mountain of bondage.
But as soon as we admit we are the problem and that only Jesus is the solution…as soon as we ask Him to change us rather than the world, we can leave the mountain and enter our own Promised Land!
What is your mountain today?
Hey! check out the rest of the Heaven posts at https://josephelonlillie.com/pastor-wrinkles/the-heaven-posts/
Lillie-Put 
Oh, Pastor J this is so my life. I am going through some inner healing sessions and I had no idea how many mountains I had. Only with our Lord and Savior was I able to conquer mountains of self-hatred and feeling like a failure. For the first time in my life I actually like myself, and I know I am truly loved. Not only am I loved but I have courage to stand strong in failure and learn from it. I believe God is and will use it for my good. There are many more mountains that I will have to conquer but with God on my side no mountain is too high. Thank you, Pastor J this series encourages me so much!
The mountains abound for all of us Deb! I am so glad our God has put the faith to respond to those mountains inside of us. That faith shall never fail.